[ausev] Solar Car - Found this email on Bike mailing list

[Brian Lasseter]

On 2/27/07, Lisa Korf <lkorf at yahoo.com> wrote:
> One of these panels would definitely fit on a car
> rooftop and not be too heavy!  Too bad they are
> $15000+ each!
>
> Has anyone else had any luck with adding solar to
> their EV's at a more reasonable cost?

They are EXCEEDINGLY expensive... however they are just about the only
thing that would work for solar charging a heavy (like, not a bike)
electric car.  Any other regular solar panels would not have the area
efficiency to be mounted on a car.  In fact, the 208W panels on my
roof would not add enough charge to my batteries to make them worth
the 50 pounds of added weight while driving.

Luckily... Solar technology is advancing at a rapid pace (mostly due
to Europeans buying them like they are going out of style).  So I
expect they will be an option for the electric car crowd soon soon.

The Zap Xebra Xero is a production three wheel electric car with a
150W solar panel... however I suspect it'd take a week to charge the
battery of that car just on the solar panel.  But I have no specs on
that car, so I do not know for sure.


-- 
TTFN,
Brian "Lasso" Lasseter

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